Simply Katherine, a Christian blog

Please read my previous post to find out more about the island of Puerto Rico . Without a doubt, Puerto Rico has it all:  nature and culture . Yet what I enjoyed the most was meeting Christians, young and old, and having a rich fellowship with them (despite the language barrier that we had since I don't really speak Spanish). I also met a lot of college students who were affiliated with Christians on Campus. Their endeavor to reach the young people on campus, to bring the gospel to them, to fellowship, and to dive into the Word of God was too precious!  From Puerto Rico with Love. I realized that even though we were so far apart geographically, we all, in Texas and in Puerto Rico, had been endeavoring to do the same thing: gaining young people for God . Furthermore, even though we didn't speak the same language and weren't brought up within the same culture, there was always a prevailing atmosphere of love and joy among us. At the end o...

Finally I got a chance to sit down and begin this amazing post on my recent summer vacation with Christians on Campus in Puerto Rico ! Also known as "La Isla Del Encanto" (lit. The Island of Enchantment ), Puerto Rico was truly a mesmerizing island. Although I originally came from a tropical island, Puerto Rico was something else. The shades of blue across the horizon were awe-striking. Playa Sucia, Cabo Rojo (Credit: J. Hernandez) Nature is definitely at the top of my favorite destinations, but Puerto Rico has much more to offer. You can see bright and bold colors exuding the island's rich culture. This is most apparent when you decide to take a leisure walk in Old San Juan, in the northern part of the island.  Old San Juan (Credit: L. Coy) To be honest, I'm not sure where to begin and where to end. Puerto Rico has plenteous stories to tell. "Castillo de San Felipe del Morro" (or El Morro ) is one of them. Its magnificent...

I'm counting days toward my Puerto Rico trip. I've never been there but I heard from others that Puerto Rico is so beautiful! My siblings and I will be traveling with a small group of Christians from Texas. We will be staying with families affiliated with Christians on Campus on the island. I just can't wait to get to know these Christians and have fellowship with them. It's quite amazing how Christ has torn down our differences on the cross so that now we can simply embrace our brothers and sisters in the Lord regardless of their personalities and backgrounds. Ephesians 2:14 says, "For He is our peace, who has made both (the Jews and the Gentiles) one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;" One of the major differences that we have with one another is our culture . Most pride in their unique identity, being part of a certain culture. Sometimes I even feel like my culture defines who I am. But Christ died ...

This post is a response to the most recent video published by Bibles for America , entitled The God-shaped Vacuum . What is the Gospel? The gospel definitely constitutes as one of the most basic elements of the Christian life. I'm a little hesitant to elaborate on what the gospel intrinsically is, not because I don't know or I don't care about it. On the contrary, I fear that I may come short in presenting the high gospel to you. But the point is you can receive the gospel even before you can fully understand everything about it! Many people hesitate to receive the power of salvation in the gospel because they think that they need to fix their current situation first - "Oh, the gospel is too wonderful that it wouldn't match with my poor condition," or "it wouldn't match with the condition of a despicable sinner such as I." Yes, the salvation in the gospel is indeed wonderful! In fact, I'm daily learning, appreciating,...

Today is the third time I heard it: "Remember, Katherine. There's no hero in the church." It's so good to be reminded again and again that I'm not a hero . Maybe I'm a workaholic or a perfectionist or both; I like to give 110% in everything that I do, including in activities related to church service. Well, it's been almost a year since I'm involved with this project for our campus outreach. I went into this project with no background whatsoever in the specific field that I'm now involved with. So I worked hard to study, to catch up, to manage, and even to effectively communicate with others who are helping with the project. I knew from the start that this was not an ordinary job. This is the Lord's work, so I cannot handle it in a common way. Looking back, this whole year has been a good training for me. I've been having a hard time because this outreach project is on a voluntary basis, so often the peop...

Where We Are Today A good starting point of why Christians should blog is plain stats. According to World Bank (Google Public Data) , in 2010, 30.48% of the world population were Internet users. Today, in the United States alone, the percentage of Internet users is probably well over 80% of the country's population. If you read an article from New York Times two years ago, you'd be floored-  "The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones.  And because so many of the...

Just in case you would like to check out other Christian bloggers, I have a list of recommendations of Christian blogs that I've been following myself. This is, by no means, an all-inclusive list but just something to start with. Here is the list, in a random order (simply click the Title to go to the Blog): I Pursue: scriptural and cultural observations along the author's Christian pursuit Life and Building: curating the best of life, architecture, and the Bible Ark and Architecture: a blog on the Bible and buildings Come, see a man: everyday experiences of Christ, life, and Christ as life Holding to Truth in Love: words of truth to help every believer grow in Christ I've benefited so much, humanly and spiritually, reading some of these blog posts. So I hope you enjoy reading them as well. Do you have any recommended Christian blogs that I could subscribe to?

Psalm 119 If we muse on Psalm 119 we shall realize that from the very beginning, in the Old Testament, God's view in giving man His law is to lead man to Christ Himself. In this chapter, the psalmist describes God's Law as His Word, His testimony, and as salvation, a life-source. Christ is God's Righteous Law! "The law is not consciously kept by us through our outward endeavoring but is spontaneously and unconsciously fulfilled in us by the inward working of the Spirit of life.  The Spirit of life is the Spirit of Christ, and Christ corresponds with the law of God. This Spirit within us spontaneously fulfills all the righteous requirements of the law through us when we walk according to Him...  The law is the living word of God which infuses God's substance into those who lovingly seek Him... Once we have been thoroughly infused with God's substance, He Himself from within us will keep His own law."  (Holy Word for Morning Reviva...

This Blog Has Saved Me I cannot tell you how many times this blog has saved me. To be honest, writing these blog posts have become my accountability to the Lord and to you all. You may ask, what accountability?  Well, you see, the need to update this blog has held me accountable to enjoy and experience the Lord in a fresh way. This is the source of  freshness in this blog. Furthermore, having to write my experiences in the Lord has taught me to muse, to consider, on His Word. I mean not just the written Word of God but also the Lord's instant speaking within me. Holy Word for Morning Revival This week I've been lacking in my morning time with the Lord. So today I picked up my morning devotion book, it's called, The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of the Psalms , to read the portion of The Functions and Blessings of God's Law as His Living Word to His Loving Seekers . This portion is a musing on Ps...

Hi all, I noticed two new updates from Blogger: The addition of heading formatting in the NEW POST feature: Heading, Subheading, Minor Heading, and Normal. The addition of Search Features in SETTINGS. Both are very crucial updates for Blogger users. For further reading on these two new additions and why they are important, check out this blog on how to blog .

Pardon the mess. The Intruders' Entrance My sister and I were visited by wild raccoons two nights ago. Well, they fell from the ceilings right above our beds. Thank the Lord, we were not actually sleeping while it all happened. We were in the living room when we heard a big thump in the room. So I went to open the door and peek in. We thought it was a burglar or something. I was so shocked when I saw this giant raccoon panicking trying to open the window. I quickly closed the door again. I told my sister. We ran outside to see what it was actually doing. Well, obviously it was clawing, destroying the window blind. But when we were outside looking into the window, this raccoon was staring back at us with both of its paws on the window. The Heroes of the Day We called 911 and the emergency maintenance phone number. The first to arrive was the maintenance man, 30 minutes later. He went to battle the raccoon with a cage. He told us there...

Having a break in my routine ushered me into a deep contemplation. A lot of time I became too busy to stop and consider, to contemplate the nature of my days, my daily activities. Recently I've been thinking of going back home to settle down and take care of my family, or something like that. I also feel like I would like to travel more and see new happenings, or discover new perspectives. I love to learn new things.  As of now, my days have always been filled with a project for a Christian club on campus, meeting people to have fellowship, shepherding others, and just being spent on various services in the church. Busy, busy, busy.  People, people, people. Being Frank with the Lord Yes, my life has been such. So this Spring break while I was traveling, I took some time to inwardly pray and look for the Lord's leading:  Where should I be?  What should I be doing?  What's next? I felt convicted. Maybe I didn't have enough burden to serv...

So I just got back from my Spring break trip. We drove all the way from D.C. to Atlanta for twelve hours on Thursday night, got to Atlanta in the morning and headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Texas. Long story short, I'm still recuperating from lack of sleep and backache (from sitting so long in the car). This trip was quite heavy-duty. Overall, I really enjoyed my break. I think we all agree that one of the most memorable places we visited in Washington D.C. is the Library of Congress.  We went to the viewing area of the Main Reading Room on the top floor. No photography was allowed so I had no record of it but we were standing behind these two tall statues of Sir Isaac Newton and Moses, overlooking the Main Reading Room from a huge window on the veranda (the following photograph is taken from Google Images). The museum docent mentioned that Sir Isaac Newton and Moses were placed side-by-side to exhibit the fact that indeed science and...

I think I should be on the plane by now to my first destination - Atlanta, Georgia. I never pass up the opportunity to travel.  Since my first serious road trip to Yosemite National Park  two years ago, my life has never been the same. That trip convinced me that I needed to continually seek for a new, broader perspective of things. I'm in Control In my experience, all these travels have humbled me. Often in my daily life, because I get used to living it every single day, I take things for granted.  Everything is so convenient - from the moment I open my eyes in the morning to the time I go back to slumber at night. I can calculate how many minutes I need to spend for each activity. Things are predictable. So I feel like in this personal universe of mine , I'm in control . Broadening My Vision and My Heart Traveling sets a new horizon, broadening my being in many ways. In my Yosemite trip, I was fully convinced, indeed all creation testified that "...

The days have not been smooth-sailing for me. I'm restless within. I can't sort it out and come up with an explanation why this is so. I've been just going to the Lord again and again, asking for an understanding. Yesterday I picked up the phone and called my companion, Judy. I told her about all these things that bothered me within - the unclarity, the uncertainty, and the indefiniteness I had been experiencing thus far.  As we talked over the phone, both of us were clear that neither of us had the answer. Have you had such an experience before?  Yes, seemingly our fellowship was just a waste of time but you know what, that fellowship had actually ushered me into a different realm  - the realm of fellowship, the realm of supply, the realm of the Body of Christ. Judy did not have a "spiritual" answer but she shared with me a story about her children. When the girls were little, Judy used to tell them, "Whatever happens, just hang on to my sk...